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[quote=Anonymous]Time gap to earliest detailed sources:

Jesus of Nazareth (~4 BCE – 30/33 CE):
20–40 years (Paul’s genuine letters 50–60 CE → Mark ~70 CE)

Siddhārtha Gautama (the Buddha) (~480–400 BCE or slightly later) 200–400 years (earliest Pali Canon texts written down ~1st c. BCE – 1st c. CE; oral before that)

Number of independent sources within first 100 years:

JC: At least 8–10 (Paul, Mark, Q source, Matthew, Luke-Acts, Hebrews, John, Josephus ×2, Tacitus, possibly Clement, Ignatius)

B: Essentially one tradition (early Buddhist community) that split into schools; no truly independent non-Buddhist attestation in the first few centuries

Non-follower / hostile references:

JC: Yes – Josephus (Jewish, ~93 CE), Tacitus (Roman, ~116 CE), Pliny the Younger (~112 CE), possibly Suetonius

B: None in surviving records for ~400–500 years

Archaeological corroboration:

JC: Pilate inscription (1961), Caiaphas ossuary, 1st-century Nazareth, crucified skeletons

B: Ashokan pillars (3rd c. BCE) mention the Buddha by name and title, Lumbini pillar, but nothing contemporary with his life

References to family / contemporaries:

JC: Brother James, John the Baptist, Pilate, Caiaphas all mentioned within 20–80 years

B: No contemporary or near-contemporary mention of parents, wife Yaśodharā, son Rāhula, or disciples by outsiders

Scholarly consensus on historicity:

JC: near universal, 99+%
B: Also near-universal, but with much larger chronological gap and thinner early evidence

Jesus: We have multiple independent sources (some hostile) within one generation, plus archaeological corroboration of key figures and places.
Buddha: We have one internal tradition written down centuries after his death, plus third-century BCE royal inscriptions that treat him as a known figure (roughly the same time-gap as Tacitus is to Jesus).

By every normal historical criterion—earliness, number of sources, independence, and hostile corroboration—Jesus has dramatically stronger and earlier attestation than the Buddha.

Most scholars accept both men existed, but if you demanded the same level of evidence for the Buddha that some skeptics demand for Jesus, the Buddha’s historicity would be far more uncertain.[/quote]

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